New York Screen Actors, Citing Recession, Balk at Strike

December 15, 2008

Here’s something else the recession is ruining: strikes. The New York branch of the Screen Actors Guild is resisting calls from the national leadership to strike over payment on internet performances, which issue kept the Writers Guild on the picket lines from last November to Feburary. L.A. is juiced, but the New York SAG board says, “Negotiations failed. Then something else failed, too. The American economy. With that collapse, everything has changed.” New York actors have always had it rough, but usually show plenty of union spirit — they fought producers andGeorge M. Cohan to start Actors Equity. But with local show biz feeling the pinch hard and the closely-allied table waiting-industry in a downturn, the board seems to think its members would prefer to address YouTube residuals at some later date. This would be good news for bosses if they had any idea how to monetize online video.